This is the sort of story that simply worked for me. I've never been to Manchester (or really the UK beyond Heathrow-I know, I know, I lived in Ireland and I never went to the UK, it's weird, all right) but You Had Me at Hello made me feel like what it must be like to live that city, with the people and smells and everything-McFarlane's writing is very sensory in bringing Manchester to life. I like the city late at night, the blasts of music and the splashes of light cast from bars that are still open, shoals of brightly-dressed clubber, the beeping taxis and the greasy, savoury smell of meat and onions from the burger vans. It was so unexpected to discover such a vibrantly-drawn setting in a book in this genre (it's basically chick-lit, though UK chick-lit is a bit different than US), which is typically plot-heavy. One thing that surprised me was how much I loved the Manchester setting of You Had Me at Hello. Instead, it's a witty and gentle narrative about nostalgia, what-ifs and the fact that even at 31, a lot of us still have a whole lot of growing up to do.

Let me get this out of the way, while Ben is now married and is clearly the endgame Rachel hopes for, this is not a book about cheating or any sort of clandestine relationship. Although this was Manchester, it was probably about to rain anyway. His sadness was almost palpable, like moisture in the air before it rains. The book chronicles the downs and ups of her journalism career, complicated yet tightly-knit friendships and the realities of confronting the one that got away in the form of Ben, who-oh yeah-reappears in her life and is now married and seems to be enveloped by sadness. In present day, 31-year old Rachel is still living in Manchester and has broken up with the boyfriend she's been with since high school and is on her own for the first time. We see their friendship grow throughout college through a series of scattered flashbacks from present day, which finds Rachel and Ben separated for several years. Rachel and Ben met their first day at college and instantly became an inseparable duo. University's like this little world, a bubble of time separate from everything before and everything after.

At its core, You Had Me at Hello is a story about friendship.

After Hello by Mhairi McFarlane